T.C.
ISTANBUL AYDIN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
BODY POLITICS IN ANGELA CARTER’S WORKS
PhD THESIS
Çelik EKMEKÇİ
Department of English Language and Literature English Language and Literature Program
SUPERVISOR
Assist. Prof. Dr. Gamze SABANCI UZUN
T.C.
ISTANBUL AYDIN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
BODY POLITICS IN ANGELA CARTER’S WORKS
PhD THESIS
Çelik EKMEKÇİ (Y1212.620009)
Department of English Language and Literature English Language and Literature Program
SUPERVISOR
Assist. Prof. Dr. Gamze SABANCI UZUN
DECLARATION
“A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy…”
I hereby declare that all information in this thesis document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results, which are not original to this thesis. (08/06/2018)
FOREWORD
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şeyda SİVRİOĞLU who has supervised my doctoral dissertation since 2012; however, due to the fact that she was officially on pregnancy leave on the exact day of my second Doctoral Defense (April-2018), it was not legally and officially possible for her to complete this Doctoral Dissertation. Therefore, ‘The Institute of Social Sciences’ appointed and approved Assist. Prof. Dr. Gamze SABANCI UZUN as my new Doctoral Supervisor, who helped me officially through her punctual decisions and very decisive solutions. I would like to thank Dr. SİVRİOĞLU again for her guidance, helpful suggestions and valuable support for my overall study and I would also like to thank Dr. SABANCI UZUN again for her support, by giving contributions, feedback and suggestions in this serious period. Hence, I would like to present my very special and heart-felt thanks to both of my ‘Supervisors’. I would also like to express my very special and heart-felt thanks to Assist. Prof. Dr. Arpine MIZIKYAN for her valuable contributions, suggestions and critiques. I am truly indebted to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gillian M. E. ALBAN and Assist. Prof. Dr. Arpine MIZIKYAN, for their feedback, revisions and corrections on my dissertation- sections and chapters. Their valuable contributions and suggestions cannot be underestimated during the overall study.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to my Professors whose wisdom I have profited from during my Ph.D. education: Prof. Dr. Kemalettin YİĞİTER, Prof. Dr. Birsen TÜTÜNİŞ, Prof. Dr. Türkay BULUT, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gillian M. E. ALBAN, Assist. Prof. Dr. Paul David BERNHARDT and Assist. Prof. Dr. Gordon MARSHALL.
I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude and very special thanks to my dearest family members; my father Aydın EKMEKÇİ, my mother Türkan EKMEKÇİ, and my elder sister Melisa EKMEKÇİ for their endless contribution, great support, overall patience and unconditional love, and a very lovely thanks go to our “Jelibon” a 12 year old lion-like cat, for her rail-road like scratches and vampire-like bites, and to our 10 year old “Cafer,” the canary bird, singing tunes like “çipet-pet, çipet-pet-pet, cibili-cibili-cibili şak-şak-şak” all the time during my studies. And I would also like to thank our new family member, ‘Izmir’, the Scottish Fold, for his docility and sweetness, taking my stress away since I constantly play with his ‘tosbak’, fluffy-head like play-dough whenever I visit my elder sister Melisa to study at her home. I would also like to thank my first colleagues and bosom friends: Selman SAKA, Hüma Tuğçe YÜCELLİ, and Bircan ÇAĞLAR. Also, my special thanks go to my beloved colleagues and bosom friends: Meltem CİRDİ, Sultan DURU, Taşkın Bora KOÇ, Ayça Berna BÖCÜ and Meltem KAYGUSUZ. I would like to say that it is not possible for me to live in Çankırı under really asocial and serious rural & winter conditions without love, support, sympathy and charming, but alarmingly great surprises of my dear, perfect bosom friends.
I would also like to thank Esma ACAR, a Research Assistant in Turkish Language and Literature Department at CAKU, her good-natured friendship made my life utterly good because it is most probably certain that life would be unbearable for me
in Çankırı without her presence. I would also like to thank my elder brothers and brothers who are either academicians at the Faculty of Fine Arts, or Administrative & Academic Staff at the Rectorate of CAKU for their stunning humour, familial support, kindness and great tolerance during my writing period.
Moreover, I would like to thank Assist. Prof. Dr. Güner DOĞAN, Director of the International Unit Department of CAKU, for his overall support during my doctoral studies. Lastly, I really want to thank Assist. Prof. Dr. Mesut GÜNENÇ, my doctoral classmate at IAU, for sharing his didactic experiences and fruitful suggestions for my ‘Doctoral Dissertation Defense.
TABLE OF CONTENT Page FOREWORD ... ix TABLE OF CONTENT ... xi ÖZET ... xiii ABSTRACT ... xv 1. INTRODUCTION ... 1
2. BODY POLITICS IN MYTHS ... 7
2.1 The Female Body in Platonic Discourse ... 8
2.2 The Female Body in Politics ... 12
2.3 The Female Body in Myths ... 16
2.4 Feminist Criticism of Myths... 25
3. BODY AND GENDER POLITICS ... 31
3.1 The Body in Sex and Gender ... 31
3.2 The Body in Philosophy and Sociology ... 39
3.3 The Body and Gender in Feminist Discourse ... 45
4. THE CARTERESQUE ... 73
4.1 The Carteresque and Magic Realism... 77
4.2 The Carteresque and Intertextuality ... 79
4.3 The Carteresque and Fetishism ... 86
4.4 The Carteresque and Grotesque ... 88
5. BODY POLITICS AND HEROES AND VILLAINS ... 95
5.1 The Critique of Heroes and Villains ... 95
5.2 Marianne’s Body Politics in Carter’s Heroes and Villains ... 103
6. BODY POLITICS AND THE SADEIAN WOMAN & THE PASSION OF NEW EVE ... 113
6.1 The Critique of The Sadeian Woman ... 113
6.2 The Critique of The Passion of New Eve ... 122
6.3 ‘Pornography and Sadomasochism’ in Carter’s The Sadeian Woman and The Passion of New Eve ... 136
7. BODY POLITICS AND CARTER’S RE-WRITTEN FAIRY TALES ... 147
7.1 The Critique of Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” and The Brothers Grimm’s “Little Red Cap” ... 154
7.2 The Literary Analysis of Carter’s “The Werewolf” and “The Company of Wolves” ... 162
7.3 The Critique of Perrault’s “Bluebeard” ... 167
7.4 The Literary Analysis of Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” ... 175
8. CONCLUSION ... 183
REFERENCES ... 187
ANGELA CARTER’IN ESERLERİNDE KADIN BEDENİNİN İKTİDARI
ÖZET
Bu tez, Angela Carter’ın eserlerinde kadın bedeninin iktidarını, cinsiyet çalışmaları ve politik anlatılar olarak incelemektedir ve kadınların, mitolojiden arındırılmış olarak yeniden tasvir edilişlerini savunmaktadır. Bu tez, erkek egemen sistemin kadınlar için yıkıcı olan görünüşünün mitolojinden arındırılarak eleştirilebileceğini öne sürmektedir. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma Angela Carter’ın The Heroes and
Villains, The Sadeian Woman, The Passion of New Eve adlı eserlerinde ve The Bloody Chamber eserindeki yeniden yazılmış seçili metinlerarası hikâyelerinde,
kadın karakterlerin beden politikalarını (bedenlerinin iktidarlarını) inceleyecektir. Bu çalışma, kadının ve kadın bedeninin otonom güçlendirilmesini göstermek için Angela Carter’ın, mitolojiden ve felsefeden arındırılmış olarak yeniden yorumlanış işlemlerini tartışmayı hedeflemiştir. Bu çalışmada teorik çerçeve, cinsiyet ve beden politikaları üzerine kurulu olacaktır. Aynı zamanda, bu çalışma, Angela Carter’ın, eserlerinde ve yeniden yazılmış peri masalları ve kısa hikâyelerinde, yeni bir kadın bedeninin iktidarını bulmak adına ataerkil ideolojiyi yıkmak, mitolojiden arındırmak ve yeniden düzeltmek için kullandığı metinsel, metinlerarası ve taktiksel yöntemleri araştırmaktadır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Kadın Bedeninin İktidarı (Beden Politikası), Cinsiyet Politikası, Güçlü Kadın Bedeni, Mitolojiden Arındırma, Yıkıcı ve Aksi Üslup, Metinlerarasılık, Yeniden Yazılmış Peri Masalları ve Kısa Hikâyeler.
BODY POLITICS IN ANGELA CARTER’S WORKS
ABSTRACT
This dissertation scrutinises body politics in Angela Carter’s works with an approach to gender studies and politics, and it argues demythologised representations of women. This dissertation argues that androcentric system’s subversive panorama for women is able to be critiqued through demythologisation. On this basis, this study will explore body politics of female stereotypes in Carter’s works entitled: The Heroes and Villains, The Sadeian Woman, The Passion of New Eve and selected rewritten, intertextual stories in The Bloody Chamber. This study thus aims to discuss demythologising and dephilosophising processes of Carter to show the female body empowerment. In this study, there will also be the theoretical framework built on gender and body politics. Apart from that, this study also explores the textual, intertextual and tactical strategies employed by Carter in order to subvert, demythologise and revise the patriarchal ideology in her works and re-written fairy tales and short stories to come up with the new female body politics.
Keywords: Body Politics, (Female Body Politics), Gender Politics, The Powerful Female Body, Demythologisation, Subversive and Perverse Language, Intertextuality, Re-written Fairy Tales and Short Stories.
1. INTRODUCTION
This thesis will explore body politics1 as ideological tools of women studies and
it will argue that female stereotypes set in the works of Angela Carter have been scrutinised in the texts of The Heroes and Villains (1969), The Sadeian Woman (1978), The Passion of New Eve (1977), and the selected stories in The Bloody
Chamber (1979). Yet, overall works of Carter are also historicised either
through quotations taken from the works in the textual analyses, or those in footnote analyses so that theoretical and literary analyses are able to be provided thoroughly.
In this thesis, re-writings of fairy tales, myths and stories along with the works including the intertextual references will be analysed so as to identify the accomplishments of Carter in her attempt to deconstruct the phallocentric and the phallogocentric pattern of thought created by patriarchal ideology. Moreover, the analysis of the deconstruction and re-writings of these phallogocentric myths, fairytales and stories by Carter are within the scope of this thesis. On this basis, the demythologising and deconstruction process of Carter has put its side against patriarchal ideology. Therefore, Carter especially has attempted to revise and re-write the myths, fairy tales and stories by demythologising and dephilosophising established norms accepted by patriarchy. From this perspective, it can be asserted that although the negative portrayal of women is rooted in mythology depicted by patriarchy, it has been demythologised by re-writings in the works of Carter.
There will also be the theoretical framework on gender and body politics of this dissertation in which the focus will be provided by establishing the bases of the critics in relation to the main scope.
1 As the title of this dissertation shall refer, ‘Body Politics’ is consciously and purposefully used to
indicate the ‘Powerful Politics’ of the ‘Female Body’ in ‘Carter’s Works’ and it is on this basis that the ‘Turkish Title’ is translated within the scope of this intended purpose.
Hence, the trace of body politics and its relationship with the history of feminism becomes an ideological construct which does not solely carry the meanings as the female struggling, and the female body commoditisation; but, on which meanings are imposed by an ideologically situated political feminist discourse whose content is shaped by complicated sets of power relations. Thereby, instead of straightforward and linear depiction of the female body, Carter’s fictions question and identify the authentic, historical and political body concept. On this scope, this study shows how Carter’s demythologised and (de)philosophised narratives take their places in creating powerful female body politics. Therefore, this dissertation aims at exploring body politics with an interdisciplinary approach drawing upon body politics of women in feminist literary theory, it will also attempt to contribute to the feminist scholarship in terms of gender studies.
In the frame of feminist historiography, the outline of which is configured by feminist theoreticians, the purpose of this dissertation is to show how traditionally considered, so-called inferior woman body concept, is altered and thus politically established and transformed into a new form which helps women attain an identity, and how this altered identity is reflected in English feminist fiction through fantastic and magical elements.
The study will be conducted on the works of Angela Carter, one of the most renowned contemporary English novelists. The fictions of Carter revolve around the theme of narrating fantasy, magic realism that took place in the postmodern age where not only the authenticity of the historical feminist trace is put into question; but also, the established notion of known facts about femininity and its relationship with the body and its linearity is invalidated.
Carter’s fictions are not about depicting known concepts about women or their body politics, nor are they about all known traditional women concepts which are all male oriented ones; but they are about depicting unknown premises, striking alternatives which put women into an area where power and knowledge rules, and most importantly, where female body-politics are reflected. Through a detailed discourse analysis of Carter’s works, the present dissertation aims to discuss the feminist remaking of body politics through competitive discourses embedded in complicated power relations.
The dissertation will be comprised of the introduction as the first chapter, six more chapters and the conclusion as the last chapter. In chapter two, immediately after the introduction, there will be a theoretical analysis of body politics within literary references through related works in gender studies in tandem with mythological and philosophical references. This chapter will also be devoted to the representation of powerful female figures in mythology. Depictions of empowered women and their body politics are given as examples from Greek mythology due to the fact that myths in general, and the depictions of women in these myths in particular, have enormous effects on the development of female body politics. It is also the aim of this chapter to explore feminist criticism of myths.
Chapter three will provide a detailed theoretical account for the historiography of body and gender politics. It is also within the purpose of chapter three to deal with an overview of body and gender theories, as the main focus will be body politics in this dissertation. Thereafter, sociological and philosophical aspe cts of body politics will be scrutinised. In this chapter, different theories proposed by seminal feminist scholars especially Judith Butler, Monique Wittig, Gayle Rubin and other eminent critics will be examined. The rest of the study is devoted to the analysis of body and gender politics from theoretical aspects starting from the duality of sex and gender to detailed analysis of body politics and its representations on gender.
Chapter four will focus firstly on the critique of Carter by a variety of critics concerning her narrative and stylistic qualities under “The Carteresque” (Magic Realism, Intertextuality, Fetishism, and Grotesque etc.). Then the rest of the chapter will be devoted to providing literary and theoretical analyses of the works of Carter respectively.
In the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters, there will be a literary analyses of Carter’s selected works. These works are: Heroes and Villains (Fiction), The
Sadeian Woman (Non-Fiction), The Passion of New Eve (Magic Realism) and
the selected stories from The Bloody Chamber (Anthology of Subversive Stories) including “The Werewolf”, “The Company of Wolves” and the namesake work: “The Bloody Chamber”.
In chapter five, the first book to be analysed is Heroes and Villains (1969). In
Heroes and Villains, two protagonists (Marianne & Jewel) create two distinct
discourses which compete for authority for bodily power and authenticity. However, Marianne, the narrator and female protagonist, attempts to construct her life by using the bodily-sexual contents as well as using her body as an apparatus for power. Because Marianne, who is a wanderer, flees from the land of Intellectuals to Barbarians. She is like a picaro/picara, and tells her own account of the picaresque narrative. Heroes and Villains can also be considered a ‘Bildungsroman’ in form, because of the protagonist’s physical and mental development. Through Marianne, the powerful female body is represented since she eliminates the obstacles and she becomes empowered. Her rejections and resistance to patriarchy enables her to gain autonomy for her inner and outer characteristic features.
The second book to be explored, in chapter six, is The Sadeian Woman (1978). In The Sadeian Woman, Carter demythologises and (de)philosophises patriarchy and its rigid dicta. Hence, ‘Pornography’ and ‘Sadomasochism’ will be represented as ideological tools through which patriarchal ideology is purposefully subverted and deconstructed. The Sadeian Woman portrays industrious biographers taking great pains to complete and depict an authentic version of Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom (1785) and Philosophy in the
Bedroom (1795). The Sadeian Woman is a non-fiction work of polemical
writing, with a cleverly woven structure which revolves around biographical accounts of two woman characters, Justin and Juliette, including the point of body politics where their lives intersect with a blend of sexual elements. On this basis, the book tells the intertextual story of Marquis de Sade in his works entitled: Justine and Juliette. However, in portraying female body politics, Carter, as de Sade does, represents two types of women, rather than showing them as parts of two binary oppositions; Carter represents them as a whole female personage, which is represented through Justine and Juliette equally though they have totally different characteristics. Carter thinks that the differences between both characters make them a perfect union. However, throughout the novel, Justine is the one who is seen as submissive and passive in her life struggles while Juliette is seen as very cunning and active; she does
everything for power and she uses her body politics perfectly to have a place in the men’s arena.
It is also in chapter six that The Passion of New Eve (1977) is analysed as the third book through which Carter illustrates her magic realism. Moreover, fantastic and magical elements take their places especially in the depiction of fe(male) characters, and the way they use their bodies are also sexually and politically reflected. Hence, The Passion of New Eve primarily concerns the magical transformation of (Eve)lyn into New Eve. However, since Carter demythologises pre-established gender politics in The Passion of New Eve, there are other gender transformations among seminal characters. It is on this basis that Leilah and Tristessa can also be considered the major characters in addition to (Eve)lyn. Hence, Leilah, the black dancer, turns into Lilith, an avenging -woman who castrates (Eve)lyn with ‘the mother’ in Beulah. Tristessa, the transvestite, is a Hollywood artist, who is adored by (Eve)lyn for being an ideal, perfect woman; however, in the end, it is seen that Tristessa is in fact ‘a male.’ In The Passion of New Eve, Carter’s groundbreaking characters act on their body politics by deconstructing established patriarchal gender roles in society. Chapter seven will focus on body politics of Carter’s re-written fairy tales in
The Bloody Chamber, a collection of subversive stories, myths and fairy tales,
and among them the most notable ones will be scrutinised as follows: “The Werewolf” (1979) and “The Company of Wolves” (1979) as demythologised and (de)philosophised versions of Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” (1697) and “The Bloody Chamber” (1979), as a deconstructed and demythologised version of Perrault’s “Bluebeard” (1697).
Basically, these deconstructed short stories are about woman and womanhood, parodying, decentering, and deconstructing the real meanings of the ‘virtuous woman’ concept by subverting it in detail. On this basis, in the following sections, toward the end of chapter seven, there will be a theoretical framework given of the re-written fairy tales and stories by focusing on the critiques of Jack Zipes whose works establish the basis for the theoretical framework of this chapter.
The other versions including Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” (1697) and The Grimm Brothers’ “Little Red Cap” (1812) will also be scrutinised in this chapter as corpuses of writings representing androcentric, ideological narratives. However, through Carter’s re-written fairy tales and stories, it is also possible to observe how androcentric versions’ ideology and intended purposes are turned upside down. Therefore, by demythologising the old texts, Carter shows the panorama of gender and body politics of her female heroes in her works. Lastly, in the conclusion, after a brief overview of the arguments made throughout the preceding chapters, Carter’s attempt to demythologise and to (de)philosophise the patriarchal construction of the females in androtexts will be scrutinised since Carter re-writes, deconstructs and subverts the traditional writings of men. So, the impacts of gender and body politics of Carter’s female heroes on her literary canons will be explored.
2. BODY POLITICS IN MYTHS
Here in this section, mythological aspects of the female body will be presented in relation to the powerful female body image. It is well-known that in ancient Greek culture, mythology was considered a source of power for male and female characters who were parts of mythological stories. However, the female power, or the power of being a woman, are considered significant for mythological female creativity, though its essence has always been neglected by the male oriented world. This man-made obstacle over female creativity has also been clarified especially in politics in general, and in states in particular, which will be expressed in this chapter.
Furthermore, it is also within the aim of this chapter that the mythological female heroines, characters and representatives from ancient Greece will be presented. However, as an introductory passage to body politics, the anal ysis of women and their position in the state will be scrutinised within the scope of Plato’s The Republic. Thus, ‘Platonic Politics’ on the female body and its contents will be in the form of an introduction in showing the politics of women’s inclusion in the state2. However, this scope, formalising and
classifying women, makes Carter attack Plato in general, and his ‘Politics’ in particular, which will be shown in the following sections.
2 In this section, Platonic thoughts in The Republic are explored as an introductory point as to show
the place of the female body in Plato’s utopic state from a mythological perspective. Hence, further analysis of the female body, its political existence and the women in politics (and in political life) will be discussed in the following section.
2.1 The Female Body in Platonic Discourse
In Plato’s The Republic (380 B.C.), “Gynaeceum” is called ‘The Place of Women’. Plato sees women as significantly crucial in the city because women’s political bodies show that there are no differences between women and men. It seems that in Plato’s Republic, otherness of women is disregarded. Canto and Goldhammer, in their article titled: “The Politics of Women’s Reflections on Plato” (1985), analyse Plato’s thoughts on women and their presence in The
Republic. Hence, The Republic’s Phoenician Tale is stated as follows:
A myth of foundation, according to which all citizens believe that they are brothers (414c-417b) – even the women, because, as political bodies, they are the same as men, and because, like the men, they work to drive otherness to the periphery of politics. This shows that within the city woman is in no sense the representative of otherness. It also shows that the civic space is apparently unable to tolerate the presence of any kind of otherness, not even to the extent of affirming the difference between men and women. But the city in which men and women have, so to speak, the same political body is a city that subsists outside history. It is also a city without images or desire. (Canto & Goldhammer, 1985, p.280)
It can be deduced that in Plato’s The Republic, the city in which women and men are equally accepted, may somehow be utopic; but it is seen that it is a desire: “[i]n the city composed of men and women, politically mingled, unions are celebrated and representations sacralized outside of re al time; they are the expression of a desire for the same, which, so long as man and woman exist” (1985, p.281). Plato’s thoughts on women and their crucial occurrences in the city show that the female body is strong enough to face anything just like the state itself. As Rousseau asserts, ‘Body politic’ is used for the name of
Republic. [my italics added]. According to Rousseau: “the Government is a
miniature what the body politic encompassing it is on a large scale” (Rousseau, 2012, p.43). It is within this scope that ‘Body Politics’ is represented. Hence, Plato, on this basis, creates a kind of a microcosm showing that the female body is a body politic: “[w]hat remains, then of the astonishing idea put forward in the Republic? The idea that women and men are in the same position, that the female body is one reason why politics exists, and that it must be present in the center of the city as well as in war; the idea that the female body is a body politic that reproduces itself” (Canto & Goldhammer, 1985, p.282).
From this perspective, in her Unbearable Weight, Feminism, Western Culture,
and the Body (1993), Susan Bordo expresses her thoughts, concerning the acute
changing from ‘the body politic’ to ‘the politics of body’:
Feminism inverted and converted the old metaphor of the Body Politic, found in Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and many others, to a new metaphor: the politics of the body. In the old metaphor of the Body Politic, the state or society was imagined as a human body, with different organs and parts symbolizing different functions, needs, social constituents, forces and so forth […]Now, feminism imagined the human body as itself a politically inscribed entity, its physiology and morphology shaped by histories and practices of containment and control […]. (Bordo, 1993, p.21)
By depending upon it, though Plato favors women and seeing the placement of women in his ideal state as crucially significant; it is also Plato’s The Republic that legislates “for equality between the sexes but falls short of this by saying that women are inferior” (Yeandle, 2017, p.28). On this basis, Carter attacks Plato and his androcentric thoughts concerning women as ‘Guardians’ in a state; but when it comes to the ruling of a state, then Plato suggests ‘philosopher rulers’ or ‘men’ actually. For “Plato: […] only the best become Philosopher Rulers, this position is not open to women, who are seen as inadequate in contrast to their male counterparts” (2017, p.27). Carter’s thoughts3 are
summarised by Yeandle in her Angela Carter and Western Philosophy (2017) as follows:
Carter’s accusation that Plato is ‘the father of lies’, who has infected Judeo-Christian culture with a series of falsehoods, or myths, corresponds to this aspect of the Republic, and one could argue that Carter’s literary agenda […] is indebted to undoing Plato’s influence on Western civilisations. Here, she argues that Western social structures are constructed upon ‘lies’ and myths, and asserts that her aim is to expose and eradicate these in her work … (2017, p.16)
Furthermore, in Plato’s The Republic, the politics of humanity’s condition depend upon the politics of women. For Plato, what makes the politics valid is the unification between women and men. In other words, it is through this unification that inferiority and superiority between the sexes is abolished.
Therefore, in ‘Platonic unity’, it is observed that ontological human politics keep the politics of women. It is described in The Republic that “both can and both should follow the same range of occupations and perform the same functions; they should receive the same education to enable them to do so. In this way society will get the best value from both” (Plato, 1974, p.157). Though Plato keeps ‘the otherness’ between the sexes; this otherness seems to be represented for the mutualisation and contribution between the sexes for the welfare of a state.
Women are necessary, then, to conceptualize the status of eros and to involve humankind in politics. In the mythology of the Symposium Plato even goes so far as to attempt a sort of amorous ontology which the need for women's political presence might be deduced. Above all, if love, subject as it is to time and desire, always seems to be directed toward the other, as the Symposium shows, the only way for love to discover its reality and truth is for the one and the other to be united, as in the union of both sexes in the city, for example, without which there is no true politics. Yet in this union otherness must remain present as a condition of thought: this is what the fact that men and women must remain warriors teaches us. Women especially must celebrate, in a banquet and by the act of their political and combative body, the reality of desire and time. Women must prove through war the reality of the other whom they represent. Apart from such a war, women's politics and women's liberation are inconceivable. (Canto & Goldhammer,1985, p.288)
According to Plato, women should also be included at war in a state so that they can get their rights properly. In The Republic, it is written as follows: “‘if we are going to use men and women for the same purposes, we must teach them the same things.’ […] ‘We educated the men both physically and mentally.’ […] ‘We shall have to train the women also, then, in both kinds of skill, and train them for war as well, and treat them in the same way as the men’” (Plato, 1974, p.161).
Similarly, the equality between men and women, Plato thinks, is only able to be secured politically, economically and socially as long as women become a political force: “[y]et to make women the equals of men […] to give women the education and capabilities they need to govern with perfect confidence both the public and private spheres, the household and the state - is not possible unless they are also given access to all the resources of war. Only on that condition do they enter into political, as a force of otherness” (Canto & Goldhammer , 1985, pp.288-289).
No matter how Plato’s The Republic classifies the presence of women in his ideal state, it is also Plato, who “broadens the horizons for women in his ideal state; in a communal society, Plato advocates that Guardian women should have the same duties, and therefore the same education and training, as men, claiming that the reproductive difference of ‘women bearing and men begetting’ is redundant (284)” (Plato qtd. in Yeandle, 2017, p.27). From this perspective, as it is expressed so far, Plato’s The Republic as an ‘ideal state’, his utopic androcentric thoughts in forming a state, and the position of women in this state might all be considered the sources for Carter’s demythologising and dephilosophising business.
On this basis, Platonic thoughts expressed so far in The Republic, are intentionally deconstructed by Carter in her works especially in Heroes and
Villains. As Yeandle mentions: “Carter’s appropriation of the Republic in a
dystopian setting in Heroes and Villains enables her to assess Plato’s utopia and exploit its limitations, particularly in relation to the role Plato gives to women in his fantasy state” (Yeandle, 2017, p.24). Through body politics represented by Marianne, Carter demythologises the presence of women in the state which might be considered to be one of the Platonic themes represented in The
Republic.
According to Yeandle: “in Heroes and Villains, a parody of Plato’s Republic is central to the novel, in which Carter questions the structure of Plato’s ideal state, provides a damning response to the place women are given in this regime, and critiques his definition of the Philosopher Ruler by allocating the novel’s female protagonist Marianne a version of this role” [my italics added] (2017, p.23). Therefore, “Heroes and Villains illustrates Carter’s definition of ‘speculative fiction’ as ‘the fiction of asking “what if?”’ (Katsavos 11), as the novel questions what would happen if Plato’s theory was put into practice” (Katsavos qtd. in Yeandle, 2017, pp.23-24).
2.2 The Female Body in Politics
Throughout history, patriarchy’s politics on women have been shaped in a way that women are positioned as a ‘marginal group’ whose destinies are dependent on men’s organised totality and the hierarchy of patriarchy. Therefore, women are represented for social practices, institutions and organisations in which they are prepared for men; whereas men, as the privileged group, are ready t o exploit women according to hierarchically authoritative dictations conducted by patriarchy. To justify this view, Aristotle states in his The Politics (335-323 B.C.E.) that in the marriage relationship: “[…] the male is more fitted to rule than the female […] As between male and female this kind of relationship is permanent” (Aristotle, 1981, p.92). Moreover, as Helene Moglen writes in her
The Trauma of Gender (2001): “[h]eterosexuality was prescribed not just as
normal but as compulsory, and marriage […]” (Moglen, 2001, p.3).
On this basis, it is also possible to explore Carter’s attitude on marriage as a totality of institution produced by patriarchy, which is challenged and questioned in her narratives especially by Marianne in Heroes and Villains which will be explored on ‘Marianne’s Body Politics’ section in Chapter five. In a similar vein, Lizzie, in Nights at the Circus (1984), metaphorically questions the patriarchal system’s institution of ‘marriage’ as follows: “[…] ‘Marriage? Pah!’ snapped Lizzie in a pet. ‘Out of frying pan into the fire! What is marriage but prostitution to one man instead of many? No different! D’you think a decent whore’d be proud to marry you, young man? Eh?’” (Carter, 2006b, p.21).
Circumstantially, patriarchy’s authoritative mentality on ‘marriage’ is asserted as follows: “[p]atriarchy is also historically variable, producing a hierarchy of heterogender divisions which privileges men as a group and exploits women as a group. It structures social practices which it represents as natural and universal and which are reinforced by its organizing institutions and rituals (e.g., marriage) […]” (Ingraham, 1994, p.206). By depending upon this scope, it is mostly evident that women’s domestication politics are seen as similar to slavery, in which slaves and women are severely exploited. Here is the same view which is represented as follows: “[i]f women are not to take their part along with men in all the business of life, we are bound, are we not, to propose some different scheme for them?.. Should they perform menial offices, exactly
like slaves?” (Canto & Goldhammer, 1985, p.275). As it is seen above, the mission of women, defined by patriarchal ideology, is also questioned in that “[s]hould they stay at home and take care of the belongings of their men? Or should they be granted dispensation from the meanest labor and encouraged to cultivate their minds and bodies, to make for themselves a life that is far from unworthy or frivolous, occupied with the concerns of the household […]” (1985, p.275).
From this perspective, the same thematic point, which is about a woman’s entrapment, or a woman’s loneliness in man’s world, is highly disregarded and the notion of ‘the mission of a woman’ is challenged by powerful female heroines in Carter’s narratives. ‘Marianne’ in Heroes and Villains (1969), ‘Juliette’ in The Sadeian Woman (1978), ‘Leilah’ and even (Eve)lyn and ‘Tristessa’ in The Passion of New Eve (1977), ‘Melanie’ in The Magic Toyshop (1967), ‘Emily’ in Shadow Dance (1966), ‘Charlotte’ in Several Perceptions (1968), ‘Fevvers’ and even ‘Lizzie’ in Nights at the Circus (1984); ‘The Little Girl’ in “The Werewolf” (1979), ‘The Little Girl’ in “The Company of Wolves” (1979), ‘The wife of Marquis the Bluebeard’ in “The Bloody Chamber” (1979) and ‘Lady Purple’ in “The Loves of Lady Purple” (1974) are all able to be considered among those powerful heroines.
Hence, in Nights at the Circus, the intended sense and the motto of ideal ‘Carterian Woman’ image is represented by the female grotesque character, ‘Fevvers’, as follows:
I was as if closed up in a shell, for the wet white would harden on my face and torso like a death mask that covered me all over, yet, inside this appearance of marble, nothing could have been more vibrant with potentially than I! Sealed in this artificial egg, this sarcophagus of beauty, I waited, I waited … although I could not have told you for what it was I waited. Except, I assure you, I did not await the kiss of a magic prince […]. (Carter, 2006b, p.42)
However, as discussed in the previous section thematically, there have also been opposite arguments in which women and women’s bodies should be considered in politics between themselves and the state. So, no matter how the state’s politics are run, women and their bodies should have a place in the regulation of these politics.
Michael Holroyd in his “George Bernard Shaw: Women and The Body Politic” (1979), quotes Shaw’s speech as follows: “[t]he denial of any fundamental rights to the person of woman is practically the denial of the Life Everlasting […]” (Shaw qtd. in Holroyd, 1979, p.26). Furthermore, as it is understood from the title, Holroyd in his work, scrutinises G. B. Shaw’s critique of women and their place in the politics of the state. Shaw points out the necessity of women in the politics of life. He even thinks that women are so powerful that they are able to dethrone the tyrants if they get enough power.
A slave state is always ruled by those who can get round the masters. The slavery of women means the tyranny of women. No fascinating woman ever wants to emancipate her sex; her object is to gather power into the hands of Man because she knows she can govern him. A cunning and attractive woman disguises her strength as womanly timidity, her unscrupulousness as womanly innocence, her impunities as womanly defenselessness: simple men are duped by them […]. (1979, p.18)
In a similar vein, the importance of women in political life is expressed as follows: “[w]hat the manifesto demands is nothing less than the presence of women on the political scene. But it contains something more as well. For women necessary as they are to life in the city, define two possibilities without which political life would be inconceivable […] existence and desire” (Canto & Goldhammer 1985, p.276). According to Shaw, the government should be ruled by women because he thinks that it is the only way that the state is able to be decent. ““The only decent government is government by a body of men and women,” he said […] “but if only one sex must govern, then I should say, let it be women --- put the men out!”” (Shaw qtd. in Holroyd, 1979, p.19).
When women and women’s body politics are considered, it is fathomable that there is equality in politics, in economy, and most importantly, in the overall society regardless of sex, race and gender. As it is depicted: “[t]he advantage to women came in the form of greater natural w isdom about sex. […]” (1979, p.19). If women’s political success means the welfare of the state, it is because the politics of women’s bodies have the capacity to have political legitimation. “The city’s only recourse is to politicize the emotions, but it cannot discharge this function unless women are granted a fully legitimate political role. Thus, the politics of women’s bodies has far reaching implications ” (Canto & Goldhammer, 1985, p.276).
Similarly, according to Plato, women’s necessity is a political reality because “the question of women and politics is always inextricably bound up with that of political reality […]” (1985, p.278). On the contrary, as stated previously in
The Republic, Plato writes that both men and women should be educated and
trained equally since they have the same purposes in political life; however, the reality is not as it is expressed because Plato writes that “they should share all duties, though we should treat the females as the weaker, the males as the stronger” (Plato, 1974, p.160). So, apparently, in Plato’s The Republic, women are expected to be as active as men in all fields of life equally. Thus, it can explicitly be stated that it seems as if there were no differences, superiorities or inferiorities between men and women in Plato’s ideal state. However, it is not as it is depicted; because “Plato’s influence on Western cultural values hinders female liberation and needs to be erased in order to achieve equality; for Carter, as Platonic thought untangled, women’s societal position improves” (Yeandle, 2017, p.13).
What Carter thinks is that Plato is the sole myth-maker, and his creation of a utopic society, in his Republic, is a mere fantasy which harms women. As Yeandle writes: “Plato is depicted as a mythmaker whose ideal society has limiting roles for women, and whose notions of knowledge and reality are ultimately flawed” (2017, p.14). On this basis, as expressed hitherto, Carter criticises Platonic thoughts in her works especially in Heroes and Villains. Carter positions “Plato as the initiator of this tradition, her ‘demythologizing business’ is targeted at breaking down Plato’s influence over the Western world. She is both demythologizing and (de)philosophizing” (2017, p.17).
Consequently, through politics and the ideology in politics, which seem to eliminate the differences between the sexes, men and women seem to be able to live in an ideal political community equally. It is expressed that “[t]he difference between man and woman lies in the complementarity of their roles in procreation. But since the meaning of community of men and women is in the first place political, only a political idea of procreation would be capable of neutralizing the effects of this difference.” (Canto & Goldhammer, 1985, p.279).
On this scope, as long as women and women’s body politics are present in the community, then the political life can be ideally possible: “[c]ommunity is the space, within which men and women circulate, meet and enter into union with one another, the place where they can see and be seen. Women, in this city whose political life they make possible, show themselves and look about them openly and without reserve. Their body is a political body.” (1985, pp.279-280). Thereby, by depending upon the brief analysis of the politics of women and the presence of ‘The Female Body in Politics’, mythological references of the female body and the female body as a source of empowerment will be analysed in the following section.
2.3 The Female Body in Myths
It has long been known that the earliest matriarchal cultures value women and female empowerment, and ‘The Minoan Culture’ can be considered one of the most well-known among them. Jane Ellen Harrison studies ‘The Minoan Culture’ in detail in her Themis: A study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion (1912) and Funda Başak Dörschel in her Female Identity: Rewritings of Greek
and Biblical Myths by Contemporary Women Writers (2011), scrutinises
Harrison’s works. Dörschel writes: “[…] The Minoan culture, which flourished on the island of Crete around 2000 BC, is the earliest known civilization of Greece and Harrison proposes that Minoan religion was matriarchal in nature […]” (Dörschel, 2011, p.65). From this perspective, in addition to matriarchal culture, it is asserted that Harrison also studies mythological ‘Mother Goddesses’ in her Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903). It is expressed that
[i]n her earlier work Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, Harrison traces the cult of pre-historic Mother Goddess from Keres, the primitive spirits, to the cult of Demeter and Persephone and she claims that the Eleusinian Mysteries, dedicated to this mother and daughter, have originated from an earlier Mother Goddess cult. And she states that this earlier Mother Goddess is turned into a twofold goddess in Demeter and Persephone by the later patriarchal invaders. (2011, p.66)
Hence, as it is seen above, the Persephone and Demeter myth is about the empowerment of a mother as a woman as well as mother-daughter relationship. In a similar vein, the same mother-daughter relationship containing an avenging-mother image can also be observed in Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” (a re-written version of Perrault’s “Bluebeard”), which is going to be scrutinised in the following literary analysis in chapter seven. Under this thematic relationship, it is evident that Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber”, which is considered “a modern, feminist version of the Demeter-Persephone myth” (Lokke, 1988, p.11), attacks male supremacy myths. Thus, the empowerment of ‘Mother Goddess’ and her powerful female body is able to be explored under ‘Demeter-Persephone myth’ as one of the prominent examples. On this basis, the same empowered ‘Mother Goddess’ image can also be observed in Carter’s
The Passion of New Eve because the powerful and fertile ‘The Mother’ figure
transforms (Eve)lyn into New Eve.
Circumstantially, no matter how patriarchy wants to distort the empowerment of women in mythology, mythological female characters’ power can be clearly observed. Edith Hamilton describes the beginning of the story of ‘Demeter and Persephone’ in his Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes (1942) as follows: “Demeter4 had an only daughter, Persephone5, the maiden of the spring.
She lost her and in her terrible grief she withheld her gifts from the earth, which turned into a frozen desert. The green and flowering land was ice-bound and lifeless because Persephone had disappeared” (Hamilton, 1999, p.55). Demeter6
is the goddess of grain who is also known as the goddess of earth and fruitfulness. She is the Mother goddess. She controls fertility in nature and on earth. To put briefly, she is an empowered woman. However, when her be loved daughter, Persephone, is abducted, Demeter causes calamities and troubles for earth and all humanity by showing her vengeance and power against whatever is responsible for it.
4 The Mother Goddess (The Goddess of Grain), Roman Name: Ceres (Lies, 1999, p.x).
5 The Queen of the Underworld, in Latin Proserpine, Roman Name: Proserpina (Lies, 1999, p.x). 6 For further description of Demeter, see Lies’ Earth’s Daughters: Stories of Women in Classical Mythology, (Lies, 1999, p.142).
That year was most dreadful and cruel for mankind over all the earth. Nothing grew; no seed sprang up; […] It seemed the whole race of men would die of famine. At last Zeus saw that he must take the matter in hand. He sent the gods to Demeter, one after another, to try to turn her from her anger, but she listened to none of them. Never would she let the earth bear fruit until she had seen her daughter. (1999, pp.58-59)
It is prominently evident that the linearity of pre-history and mythology, concerning mythological stories, have been shaped by women. In other words, the matriarchal culture has been dominant and authoritative in shaping humanity. However, in order to change and erase the matriarchal power over creation, patriarchy challenges and replaces everything which powerful women handle. It is probably not possible for patriarchy to reach its target when ‘the origin’ is considered. Thereby, Betty Bonham Lies in Earth’s Daughters:
Stories of Women in Classical Mythology (1999), concerns the significance of
mythological female creativity. Here, the purpose is to show the power of women and their body politics. Additionally, how these powerful women use their bodies despite patriarchy is seen and reflected in mythological narrations. So, the following reference will be about ‘The Warrior Women: The Amazons’. As it is known, The Amazons are “famous for their warlike qualities” (Lies, 1999, p.75). On this basis, the same thematic point, indicating Amazons’ war-like qualities, is also described in Carter’s The Infernal Desire Machines of
Doctor Hoffman (1972):
We heard the sound of crude but martial music and a jaunty detachment of Amazons marched out of the forest. These women were elderly and steatopygous. They were the shapes of ripe pears bursting with juice and their wrinkled dugs swung loosely back and forth, inside and outside the silver breastplates they wore, […] some with scarlet cloaks […], others with cloaks of chocolate brown and dark blue breeches, all with metal helmets crowned with decorations of black horsehair. […] these female soldiers were aggressively armed with duck-guns, blunder busses, muskets and razor-like knives, a museum of ancient weapons. (Carter, 2010a, p.187)
What makes The Amazons famous is that they isolate themselves totally from men. So, men are strictly excluded from their society. Therefore, The Amazons only raise female children who later become warriors just like them and they never let male children live with them and for this reason, they either kill the boys, or send them away to other places. The Amazons:
were warriors who could, and did, compete against the best male soldiers, and usually won. Their mother was Harmony, a nymph who loved peace, but their father was the fierce god Ares, and his descendants took after him. They worshipped Ares as the god of war and Artemis as the virgin goddess of female strength and hunting. How strange it must have seemed to male warriors to see these women, bows in hand, riding into battle! […] And yet the Amazons were beautiful as well as warlike. But they did not go to war just for the fun of it. They only fought when they had good reason to. (Lies, 1999, pp.75-76)
Thereby, ‘The Amazons’ are powerful women and they use their powerful bodies against the things or men who threaten them. As Gregory Staley writes in his “‘Beyond Glorious Ocean’: Feminism, Myth, and America” (2006):
The Amazons represent female desire as well, as Cixous has shown, but a desire in which the women prevail so as to preserve their independence: ‘[The hero] dominates to destroy. She dominated not to be dominated; she dominates the dominator to destroy the space of domination.’ (Newly Born Woman, 116) The Amazons have long been popular figures among the women who challenge patriarchy, from Christine de Pisan to Héléne Cixous and beyond […]. (Cixous qtd. in Staley, 2006, p.228)
On this basis, above mentioned women are considered women heroes, and the following references will mention a group of women who are called witches by patriarchy because of their extraordinary power or qualities, so men accuse them of being mad and call them ‘witches’. By depending upon this scope, the description of ‘witch-woman’ is also observed in Carter’s Several Perceptions (1968), in which witch-woman qualities of Charlotte are expressed by the narrator as follows:
[h]er blonde hair blew over her face which did not in the least resemble the face he remembered, since that face reincarnated in fantasy after fantasy, recreated nightly in dreams for months after she left, had become transformed in his mind to a Gothic mask, huge eyeballs hooded with lids of stone, cheek bones sharp as steel, lips of treacherous vampire redness and a wet red mouth which was a mantrap of ivory fangs. Witch woman. Incubus […]. [my italics added] (Carter, 1995d, p.15)
However, most importantly, myths are seen as the product of men in which men distort women according to their own taste. As Dörschel states: “[i]n myths, culture, thus civilization is shown as a product of men, on the other hand women’s roles are confined to the private sphere” (Dörschel, 2011, p.97). As Mark Shorer asserts in William Blake: The Politics of Vision (1946): “[m]yth is fundamental, the dramatic representation of our deepest instinctual life, of a
primary awareness of a man in the universe […]” (Shorer qtd. in Guerin, 1966, p.156). Hence, this thematic point can be considered to be the motto of ‘Feminist Criticism of Myths’ through which feminists “[…] call attention to the androcentric nature of myths in which the world is interpreted through the lens of the discourse of men” (Dörschel, 2011, p.97). So, according to Dörschel: “women in myths are defined first and foremost by their domestic duties and they are defined by their relation to men; as daughters, wives, lovers or mothers” (2011, p.97). But, if those roles attributed by patriarchy for women are rejected then women are called either evil doers, devils, monsters, or witches7
because myths, which are produced throughout history, are expressed by the male discourse. However, powerful women representations in mythological references, mainly in ‘Greek mythology’, are condemned by patriarchy because the male scope sees that these powerful representations of women are the products of witches or evil sources. From this perspective, ‘Feminist Criticism of Myths’ will be scrutinised in the following section within the scope of powerful women representations.
Hence, ‘Hecate8’, as one of the leading figures of witches in Greek mythology
takes her special place. Hecate is considered one of the most powerful witches among others. It is expressed that when Hecate “was well disposed toward someone, Hecate would great anything the person wished for: victory and glory in battle or in athletic contests, success in fishing or farming in fact prosperity in any endeavor. She concerned herself equally in the affairs of the great and the small: she was a wise advisor to kings, and the nurse of the young” (Lies, 1999, p.155). Despite the fact that patriarchy condemns witches, Hecate is a woman who provides a source of power for men. Thus, even men accept her power in Greek mythology. Therefore, it might be probable that in Greek mythology, one of the leading themes is about the fear of women in which women and power are mostly associated with one another, so, this fear becomes a major scope for men.
7 As Sivrioğlu stated etymologically: “once witch meant to be a wise woman” (Sivrioğlu, 2016, p.9). 8 For further details about Hecate, see Lies’ Earth’s Daughters: Stories of Women in Classical Mythology (1999), p.155.
Another influential witch in Greek mythology is ‘Medea9’. She is very beautiful
and powerful, yet full of vengeance hence, she becomes one of the most feared witches of all. How Medea is transformed from a beautiful woman and a princess, into a witch is due to the fact that she loves deeply and passionately. It is this passion that makes Medea such an empowered, but alarmingly dangerous-evil woman. The passionate love affairs and infidelity change Medea dramatically. Medea is described as follows: “[f]rom her very earliest childhood, Medea was adept in the arts of sorcery. […] Medea was the niece of the great enchantress Circe. Like her aunt, the princess was a devotee of the goddess Hecate. By the time she reached young womanhood, she was unsurpassed in the powers of witchcraft” (1999, p.158). Moreover, Medea’s story can also be about the betrayal in which Medea is assumed to betray her father for a stranger, Jason. At the end of the story, it is seen that Medea does anything for Jason. She even kills her own brother and her own children, so she sets her revenge on Jason in the end. In other words, the same thematic point of the image of an avenging-woman, which will be discussed in the following sections, especially in the “The Bloody Chamber”, can also be observed in the case of Medea. Consequently, it is asserted that “[e]verything Medea had done, good and evil alike, she had done for him” (1999, p.161).
The story of Medusa10, on the other hand, can be considered another influential
mythological story in which the empowered and fearful woman image is again reflected. It is written that “[t]he story of Medusa is one of the most frightening of the transformation stories, for not only was the punishment of this woman unjust, but her metamorphosis made her a terrible monster who brought suffering to others” (1999, p.162).
9 For the overall story, see The Quest of The Golden Fleece (Hamilton, 1999, pp.160-180). Also see Jason and The Argonauts in Apollodorus: The Library of Greek Mythology A new translation by Robin Hard, (Hard, 1997, pp.48-57).
10For the overall story of Medusa, see Lies’ Earth’s Daughters: Stories of Women in Classical Mythology, (Lies, 1999, p.162). Moreover, for further information about “The Story of Medusa”, see Edith Hamilton’s Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes’ Part Three: The Great Heroes Before The Trojan War / Perseus (Hamilton, 1999, pp.196-.). For further analysis, see also Marija Gimbutas’ The Living Goddesses, edt. Miriam Robbins Dexter (1999), pp.25-26.
Medusa’s11 empowered and fearful description causing terror among men is
expressed because “Medusa was one of the Gorgons” and “for the reason that whomever looked at them was turned instantly into stone” (Hamilton, 1999, p.200). Gillian M. E. Alban in her article entitled: “Medusa as Female Eye or Icon in Atwood, Murdoch, Carter, and Plath” (2013), explores Medusa as “the electrifying archetype, with her starring eyes and snakes for hair, petrifi es her object” (Alban, 2013, p.163). According to Alban, Medusa’s mythological story makes her a powerful female icon in which woman’s psychic power is expressed.
The beautiful snake goddess of the life force, Medusa, whose name means “ruleress” or “queen” […] was raped by Poseidon. This […] took place on the altar of Medusa’s alter-ego, the goddess Athene, who declared herself born of her father Zeus, and who notoriously cast her vote against the mother in Orestes’s trial, forgetting that she was the child of Metis and one who inherited her wisdom. Athene punished the rape victim Medusa by demonizing her with snakes for hair, making her stare petrify beholders into stone. (2013, p.166)
Consequently, in regards to female mythological stories depicted so far, it can be clearly stated that men are more likely to see such empowered women as horrific, fearful and monstrous because patriarchal efforts evaluate these women myths from a traditional scope. As a result, the previously mentioned women myths are reflected unpleasantly. However, these female icons are considered to be the sources of empowerment for women. Therefore, it seems that patriarchy’s attempts to smear those powerful female icons look futile. In addition to these female myths mentioned in this section, “Lilith Myth”, which might be considered one of the most powerful female myths, as prior to the others, will be scrutinised in detail within the scope of Carter in chapter six. From this scope, Carter’s pure purpose can be located in her narratives, especially on ‘demolishing the traditional depiction of myths purposefully done by men’. Therefore, Carter’s demythologising of classical tales and myths show that women’s positions are turned upside down so that they are able to regain their power.
11 Medusa’s power will be thematically explored in Carter’s narratives especially in “The Bloody
Anna Kerchy in her Body Texts In The Novels of Angela Carter: Writing From a
Corporeagraphic Point of View (2008), states that Carter’s politics of the
female body on: “‘demythologizing business’ repeats the carnival’s joyous relativization of truths, norms and authorities, as she rewrites fossilized myths, canonized mastertexts, and conventional representations to perform a finite yet joyous revolution, a subversion from within, fuelled by grotesque bodies” (Kerchy, 2008, p.34). By deconstructing traditional men-made discourse, Carter creates autonomous female characters. As it is depicted, Carter, in her narratives, focuses upon the powerful female characterisations among them in her Shadow Dance (1966), it is also possible to observe Carter’s indication of the power of women in their daily lives: “[…] Emily stood at the sink with a cartoon of caked scouring powder in her hand, a strong girl, a self-sufficient girl who might grow up into a matriarch (or, ignoring the big breasts, which after all, might be false – a patriarchy)” (Carter, 1995e, p.74).
On this basis, by depending upon the current analyses, what is noteworthy is that those female myths, scrutinised so far, have partially been shaped by patriarchy. However, through such myths, it is also possible to observe that patriarchy, unconsciously shows women as stronger and empowered, but fearful and merciless creatures causing death and evil for men. As stated hitherto, if creation is considered, females are responsible for giving birth, life and everything. Thus, negative perspectives have consciously been put and shaped by patriarchy. In fact, what patriarchy shows is the consistency of women if the positive and negative images are considered carefully.
Therefore, it is possible to express that women are the source of life; they give birth and the life-path starts. However, it should be known that women can cause the fall at the same time not just because they are evil but, because they are empowered. Hence, in a patriarchal sense, it is utterly natural for men to put shame on these female-oriented myths in which women are empowered. On this scope, patriarchy’s partial expressions might be the eminent reason for women writers like Carter to challenge this inconsistent dichotomy that patriarchy created through myths.
So, women writers work for both positive and negative associations of patriarchy against women. In other words, women are grateful that men created the female monster image to show women negatively. But, for women, this negativity shows women’s empowerment and women re-shape then convert these myths to use this negativity as being part of positivity showing the power of female-myths.
To conclude, women are empowered, they know their bodies better than men and women also know the politics of their bodies, they know they are fertile, they know they can cope with the difficulties they come across, they know how to struggle with men and patriarchy. For this reason, men should understand the existence of women. Because women are aware of patriarchy’s wicked policies in which they are negatively expressed, as stated hitherto, either as evil doers or monsters in every man-made myth. However, women know that even if they are associated with death or birth, it is not an important issue for them, contrarily, what concerns women is that they are against distorting facts in which patriarchy performs to form their sexist dualities. Yet, men should know that even if it is futile for women to re-shape the myths that patriarchy created, women changed, change and will change this man-made tradition. If women cannot change this panorama, then it should be known that they are happy with having images of death and other negative attributions because these attributions make already empowered women stronger, and they prefer death and evil qualities rather than ‘being passive and subjugated’. As S. Yumiko Hulvey expresses in “Myths and Monsters: The Female Body As The Site For Political Agendas” (2000): “if women today cannot be revered or worshipped as the creators of life, they prefer to be feared as agents of death, as decreed by myth, rather than bow down meekly as the oppressed Other” (Hulvey, 2000, p.88).
